With a pretty awesome thunderstorm raging on in the background I’ll need to be brief incase the power goes out, but this week in CEDO 530 we took a look at multiple ways of planning for and executing presentations. Were as the book Presentation Zen started off being a little philosophical in the beginning, now we are totally into the nuts and bolts section of the text. There is an absolute ton of great tips in chapter 6 that give you a very quick introduction to the many different facets of design. This turning from philosophy to practice has made the book endlessly more enjoyable and practical.
In DigiTales we are looking at the different steps needed to make a proper digital story. The checklist seems very good and I look forward to using it with my students when they create digital stories or projects. To help facilitate quick creation of digital stories we also investigated the website animoto. Animoto is a great website that instantaneously creates very professional slide shows using only the music you upload and the pictures that you provide. This seems to be a great system for displaying a series of pictures if you do not have an artistic vision that you want complete control over.
The last tool we explored this week was Pecha Kucha, a method of presenting 20 power point slides in 20 seconds each. It is structured in a way to maximize the presenter’s effectiveness and minimize the death by power point that happens quite frequently in meetings. It will be fun to try this out in coming weeks.
John---
ReplyDeleteI liked the way that you noted how the "Presentation Zen" text is shifting toward more tangible instruction, as opposed to the philosophical approach it took in the beginning. Also, as a math instructor, I was curious on how you were planning to use Pecha Kucha. I think it's a neat tool, I just need to find a place in which I can implement its capabilities.
I am also happy to see the excellent tips provided in Presentation Zen. I like the "before and after" examples provided, which really help me see what I can do to slideshows I've already put together and adapt them to be more effective in future presentations.
ReplyDeleteI am curious: Which one of the "Zen" principles did you find you were most in line with, and which one provided you with an "aha" moment that you will never create another presentation without?